New Delhi: Ministry of Textiles and FICCI are jointly organising a Workshop on ‘Strengthening-Government-Industry-Consumer Partnership on Geotech Textiles’ here tomorrow . Senior Officers from the Central and State Governments will address the delegates. Over 100 delegates from various sectors like Industry, Construction companies, Central Governments, State Governments and Institutes are attending the workshop.

Technical Textiles products used in geotechnical applications pertaining to civil engineering like roads, pavements, slope stabilization and embankment protection, rail-track bed stabilization, etc. are called Geo Textiles. Some of the examples of geotech products are geogrids, geonets, geomembranes and geocomposites etc.

Globally, it has been proved that geotech is a very cost effective and versatile material for ground modification and stabilization. It helps in providing long life to roads and highways and that too with least maintenance cost. However, in India the use of these materials remain inadequate and far below the potential despite the fact that India has the second largest road network in the world. The current domestic consumption of geotextiles is merely Rs.170 crore and is expected to touch Rs.300 crore by 2012-13.

The objective of the workshop is to sensitize stakeholders about myriad applications of technical textiles in agriculture and environmental engineering and to create awareness amongst the stakeholders about the benefits of these items. The Workshop will also focus on various rules/legislations that need to be amended to facilitate the use of these textiles in various applications.